Bitcoin Argentina partners with IDB on digital identity system

Washington DC-based Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has partnered with Bitcoin Argentina and Accenture to develop a digital identity system aimed at promoting financial inclusion.

Bitcoin Argentina Executive Director Rodolfo Andragnes told Coin Rivet that the IDB has funded the $2.75 million (£2.16 million) project with $1.15 million (£904,280) and that the rest of the money has come from his NGO, Accenture and others. The partners are still seeking about $750,000 (£590,000) to complete the project.

“The pilot project will be launched in the first six months of 2019 in two of Buenos Aires’ most vulnerable neighbourhoods,” Andragnes says. “And like all of the IDB projects, after positive results are observed, the digital identity system will be expanded to the whole of Latin America.”

Timeline

The project is planned to go on for three years and the stakeholders don’t expect results before about 18 months after the system is launched. “It’s important to note that the digital identity system is a tool not only aimed at people in more vulnerable conditions but ultimately for everybody.”

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Sustainable Development Goals

The system “aligns with four of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals defined by the UN”.

• Access to economic resources and new technologies
• Expansion of Access to financial services
• Reduction in transaction costs
• Positive economic and social linkage

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“By creating a digital identity system that puts people’s data on the blockchain, you make it easier for people to access many benefits they usually wouldn’t have,” says Andragnes.

Users will be able to include information on their personal blockchain data storage such as all their work history, including informal trade or craft training, their properties and cash economy.

Public bidding platform

The partnership with the IDB also includes the development of a blockchain system based on smart contracts for public biddings. As with the identity system, this would be launched in Argentina and then the rest of the region.

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